Plan for Labor Day: Things to Do

by Jamie Rhein on

“Are you going anywhere for Labor Day?” our friends asked us last night as we sat in our living room after an evening at the movies seeing The Bourne Ultimatum. They were heading out on an extended family camping trip.

“Nope, we’ve been gone so much we thought we’d stay here,” we said. This summer we’ve been from the East Coast (Massachusetts, New York, Washington, D.C.) to the West Coast (Washington State and on over to Montana) to the Midwest (Owensboro, Kentucky) and to Cleveland two times, that Labor Day weekend needs to be spent catching up on the things we haven’t taken care around the house that we promised to do before the end of summer. I call this “shoveling out.”

But, since Labor Day does offer that present of a Monday off, here are some suggestions of Labor Day jaunts and possibilities that I came across. Beaches, parks, museums, restaurants etc. are on the lists.

  • For romantic getaway suggestions check out “Top 10 Things to Do Before Labor Day.”
  • For where to go for Labor Day on a budget, here’s “Top 6 Places to Spend Labor Day on the East Coast on a Budget.”
  • If you live near Seattle, here’s a huge list of things to do in an article from The Seattle Times.
  • And here’s Labor Day Weekend 2007 on About: Travel with Kids. This is a terrific roundup of things to do across the United States. There are links upon links upon links.

Doesn’t summer end though on September 21? Maybe we can slip in at least a day trip for Labor Day. There’s that rodeo going on at Smoke Rise Ranch in Hocking Hills, Ohio. (The photo is of the Working Man sculpture outside the Seattle Art Museum. The fence is gone now since the construction is completed.)

More Road Trip Games

by Jamie Rhein on

Martha recently wrote in a post about road trip games inspired by her 5 day trip across the Canadian praries.

Here is a game that we play on trips. This is a version of the alphabet game. In this version players search billboards and road signs for letters of the alphabet starting with the letter A. A sign can only be used once. Once you see the letter you need, you call out what it is and the sign where you saw it. You have to go in alphabetical order. Once a sign is used you move onto the another letter on another sign. Whoever gets to Z first wins.

And here are three road trip games you can buy. Kevin Joy, a writer for the Columbus Dispatch pulled together suggestions in an article I’ve culled from. These particular three appeal to me because they don’t require technology to play.

Conversations to Go—If you want to think of things to talk about, here’s a solution. This game doesn’t seem to have winners or losers. According to the description there are cards with questions that center on travel. If you’re creative, why not think up your own questions? On the otherhand, pulling questions from a box have a certain random appeal tha breaks down trip monotony.

Miles of Smiles: Travel Games & Quizzes to Go. This one is published by American Girl so the cover looks “girlie”. Hopefully, the games inside would interest boys as well. I like these game books because they provide many options from which to choose. When stuck in a car for the next 50 miles until there’s a highway exit, it’s great to have some control over something.

Are We There Yet? – This one looks like it might be my favorite of the bunch. It’s a card game, scavenger hunt where players are delt five cards with items on them. Whoever finds their items first wins. To speed things up (like in Wyoming it could take hours to see something new) you can put a time limit or within a mile limit on this one.

One for the Road: 1,000 Places to See in the U.S. and Canada

by Kelly Amabile on

Yesterday we suggested a tool to use for logistical aspects of your travel planning. Today we overwhelm you with a list of destination choices for North America, a semi-tribute to America during the recent holiday.

Earlier this spring, Patricia Schultz, author of the mega 1,000 Places to See Before You Die, released a second version:1,000 Places to See in the USA and Canada Before You Die. So now you’ve essentially got about 2,000 places (minus the overlap) to choose from. Yikes!

This 1,200-page monster has loads of suggestions for travelers — things you can do this summer and throughout the year. The book is organized by region, and includes subject-specific indices sorted by interest — wilderness, great dining, best beaches, world-class museums, sports and adventures, road trips, and more. And hey, mom and dad — there’s also a handy index that breaks out the best destinations for travel with kiddies. Plenty to pick from in this one!

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One for the Road: ‘Three-Martini Family Vacation’

by Kelly Amabile on

Here’s a smarmy tongue-in-cheek guide for parents that should offer up plenty of laughs, as well as some smart travel advice. The Three-Martini Family Vacation is a collection of wickedly funny essays that will serve as a reminder to parents that family vacations can truly be fun — regardless of how much gets shaken or stirred along the way!

Christine Mellor’s latest ‘Field Guide to Intrepid Parenting’ offers helpful advice on harnessing the energy of toddlers-gone-wild on vacation, out to dinner or even just when grandmother stops by for a visit. Parents will relearn the art of traveling and how it can be done (sometimes) with well-behaved children in tow. This is my favorite bit of practical advice: Get those kids reading books as soon as possible — it’ll pay dividends in countless waiting rooms, cars and airports. Nothing funny about that one, but it sure is true!

Related:

Plugged In or Tuned Out in Amish Country

by Jamie Rhein on

Once, when I was about ten years old, my grandparents came to visit my family in State College, Pennsylvania where we lived. Afterwards, they brought my brother and me back to their house in Dayton, Kentucky right across the river from Cincinnati. They were excited to take us on a side trip through Amish country on the way.

Since the oldest settlement of Amish in the United States is in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, a drive through there guarantees coming across horse drawn buggies, white farmhouses with laundry flapping on clotheslines, and fruit and vegetable stands that also sell homemade pies and jams. I was happy to drive through Amish country, but after awhile was more interested in reading my book than keeping my eye for another buggy much to my grandmother’s displeasure.

Now that I’m traveling with my own 14 year-old, I can somewhat relate to how my grandmother felt.

This My Turn Essay by Lisa Segleman in this week’s Newsweek magazine addresses the road trip with kids issue, something that I’ve also written about in earlier posts. In Segelman’s account, everyone in her family was plugged into their own electronic devices, thus did very little to interact with each other while they traveled from New Jersey to Florida. I understood her feelings about not having anyone to interact with since everyone was busy interacting with their gadgets, but also wondered why no one said, “Unplug.”

On the other hand, perhaps part of the pleasure of a road trip is the coziness of being in a vehicle with family members without arguements. Still, whenever we go on trips with my daughter, we do tell her to take off the earphones from time to time to visit with us. And sometimes, she hands me her headphones so I can listen to her favorite songs. The only time I do this is on a road trip and I always feel great when I’m plugged in.

Colin Thomas snapped this picture of Bethany and posted it on Flickr. His comment said, she said, “You’re so annoying.” Yep, sounds about right. I don’t think Bethany is an adolescent though, but the sentiments are the same.